Find Your Workflow: Digital Denture Workflows and Materials-Find Your Workflow: Digital Denture Workflows and Materials

Video Transcription

Video Summary

The webinar, led by Dr. Wendy Clark, focused on digital denture workflows and materials, explaining how modern digital dentistry can be adapted to different clinical settings and patient needs. She traced the evolution of dentures from conventional PMMA processing in 1937 to the development of validated digital workflows, 3D printing, milling, and open-source software tools.  <br /><br />Dr. Clark emphasized that digital denture workflows still preserve the same fundamental steps as conventional dentures: data acquisition, design, and fabrication. The difference is that these steps can be combined or streamlined into fewer visits, often around two to four appointments. She discussed several workflows, including copy/reference dentures, wax-rim workflows, Wagner try-ins, DenTCA-style workflows, and immediate dentures.  <br /><br />Key clinical points included: capturing accurate impressions, using existing dentures or wax rims for jaw records, digitizing records with lab scanners, intraoral scanners, or CBCT-based workflows, and using software such as 3Shape or Exocad for digital design. She also highlighted the importance of facial photographs and digital facebow transfer for aesthetics and occlusion.  <br /><br />For fabrication, she compared milled dentures and 3D-printed dentures, noting that milling offers strong, precise PMMA prostheses, while printing offers scalability and customization. She stressed that clinicians can mix and match analog and digital steps, choose workflows based on comfort level, and work with labs if they do not have in-house scanners or software.  <br /><br />Overall, the presentation encouraged dentists to embrace innovation while choosing digital tools that improve predictability, efficiency, patient experience, and access to care.

Keywords

digital denture workflows

digital dentistry

PMMA dentures

3D printing

milling dentures

intraoral scanners

Exocad

3Shape

copy dentures

validated workflows